One small site at a time, a different kind of developer brings change to the Downtown Eastside, Chinatown, Strathcona

I had noticed a few months ago that I was starting to see a different kind of development pop up on the city’s rezoning and development-permit lists: small buildings, slivers almost, carefully shoehorned into the streetscapes of Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside.

Kerry Gold wrote about one of them for the Globe back in February, foreshadowing the public tussle about gentrification that was going to erupt publicly (and finally did this week, as you can see here and here.)

That building is part of a small trend, though, among developers willing to wrestle with the difficult building conditions, the possible anti-gentrification backlash, and the challenge of fitting into the existing social conditions of those areas. My story on that here.